The Riddle Game
by WINDTORCH
Summary: PG only because of death and how some little kids may freak out at it. What happens when the Avada Kedavra Curse is cast upon you? Do you really die, or just... invert? A certain character that you don't read about often is finding out... GoF spoiler..
1. Default Chapter Title

Disclaimer: Cedric Diggory, and all other Harry Potter things that have been mentioned in the books belongs to Miss J. K. Rowling, HAPPY?!?! Umm, and the memory concept belongs to me.  
  
Author's Note: This is the one fiction I'm focussing on at this point for a while, okay? I hope to get more up later on, IF I GET REVIEWS!!!!!! Please, please review!!  
~WINDTORCH  
  
  
THE RIDDLE GAME  
Prologue  
  
"Huff!" Cedric hit the ground hard and lay on his back. A headache was starting up where his head had hit the floor, crawling from the back of his skull and spreading. "Ugh..."  
Green waves altered his vision as he struggled to sit up, as bright lights always do haunt you when you stare into them then turn away. He remembered green, and a whole lot of it. It was a bright light, yes. No... it was a wand. He could remember a graveyard... Harry Potter... and that figure, and those words...  
And here he was. He was sitting in some sort of darkened room, head swimming and heart pumping. And eyes clearing. It wasn't just some darkened room. It looked like he was underground. It was a small place really, at least from where he was sitting. Turning his head, he noticed a long hall leading into darkness behind him. And two poles leading up into...  
"Hello," a cold voice greeted him. Those weren't poles! Those were legs. Cedric's head snapped up, and he saw a face of a teenager boy, not so much younger than his own, if at all younger. He felt himself being raised to his feet by a strange force. And it wasn't on his will.  
Trying to stand on his legs, which felt like wiggling Jell-O at the moment, he looked quizzically at the other boy. He had jet-black hair, and was wearing a Hogwarts wizard robe. A silver prefect badge was pinned to his chest, and a smile that reminded Cedric of a fox played around his face. With eyes much sharper than his own, Cedric saw the other boy tracing his features, also.  
"What -er- who are you? When -er- where-?" Cedric was cut off.  
"Call me Tom. This is where you were sent when you had that curse placed upon your, how do I put this, body," the boy, Tom, stared casually into Cedric's gray eyes, and Cedric had a feeling reminiscent of someone being measured or weighed... or even determined. A strange sense entered Cedric's thoughts as the boy smirked wider still.  
"Tom? Well, um, I'm not so sure I understand what you're... um... I meant to say I don't... uh..."  
"You don't understand, of course. Well, you're not really supposed to. I mean I haven't explained anything yet, Cedric. Being -hmm- killed doesn't let anyone think clearly," Tom said this all very slowly, as thought Cedric were a child. And then it sank in.  
"What, killed? But I'm not dead!"  
"I know you aren't. That curse doesn't quite kill a person. The Avada Kedavra Curse, that is. Oh, no, no, no. It merely makes the victim shed an empty shell of their body and get sent here. Don't worry about your shell. It's a very convincing duplicate."  
"But how did you-?"  
"What?"  
"How did you know my name?"  
"You don't need to know. The only things you need to know are I am Tom, you are Cedric Diggory."  
"And what do you mean by not QUITE kill?" Cedric could hear his voice rising in a panic.  
"You're inverted."  
"What does that mean?!"  
"You no longer are a human being."  
"WHAT?!"  
"You are a memory. You are a spirit without a body. You're not quite a ghost, but you're not alive."  
"But how can that be?"  
"I suppose I must explain. Listen carefully, for I do not repeat. The Avada Kedavra Curse is merely the gateway into this world. If the curse is cast upon you, your spirit is sucked into this land. An empty shell of your body, your duplicate, remains limp where you were at the time of your departure. Your real body is kept in a very safe place, I assure you. This is where your spirit arrives, away from the real world. And so you are a memory. You will only be able to return to being a human once you've regained your life's energy."  
"Oh, and how's that?"  
"You must win duels over other memories. By doing so, you capture their spirits, and build up your life energy a tad higher. You'll know when your life reaches the top. If somebody challenges you to a duel, you may either accept or decline. If you decline, mind you, you will neither gain nor lose anything. If you accept, you could gain another step to being mortal again. Be warned. Some duelers are much more experienced than you are, and they have certain tricks they may pull to catch you off guard in a duel. If they win, they either take all of the spirits -the life energy- you've earned, or... if you have none... they'll take your spirit. No guarantees, Cedric."  
"All this fuss to become mortal. Well, I always kind of fantasized about being immortal. I think I'll stay the way I am."  
"You think. The thing about memories... nobody but another memory can see you, hear you, or even know that you're there. Mortals won't even notice you if you take a muggle saw and try to cut off their head."  
"But-but-!"  
"Didn't I mention? Our world lapses with theirs. Memories are everywhere in that world, Cedric. You've just never seen them before. You can walk around where you usually walked, sleep on your own bed, even. You can see humans walk around, hear them talk, but not vice versa. You cannot go through solids. You, yourself, are a solid. It's really hard to explain. I suppose you'll figure it out sooner or later. You've only got eternity," Tom laughed coldly, and Cedric's eyes darted around the tunnel-like room for some kind of escape. "And one more thing. Your book..."  
A small, leather diary like thing with a quill strung to it suddenly appeared in front of Cedric.  
"This is your life. Your body. If anything, ANYTHING happens to this... um, curtains for you. No chance of ever becoming human again. You'll remain a memory forever, even if you win a million duels. A page torn, the cover ripped off, anything. This is also your key to communicating with mortals."  
"How in the world is that going to help me?"  
"This is the only solid thing, other than yourself and other memories, that you can effect. You cannot pick up a normal book. You can pick up your diary. You cannot write with a normal quill. You can write with your quill. It's almost like a muggle internet instant messenger, really. You see, that diary..." Tom snatched the diary suddenly out of the air and gave it to Cedric, "it isn't really just one diary. It is connected with another diary that looks exactly like it in the mortal world. The other diary is placed where you attend work. Or, in your case, school. Most likely the library, I should say. It appears where it will not look out of place. Inside the cover it tells your name, and the date when the diary was created; which year, like 1872 or whatever. Oh, yes...  
"There actually is another way to become mortal again. Trick a mortal into feeding you all of their secrets, their concerns, and their darkest deepest feelings. And in return feed them your heart's nooks and crannies. You will eventually switch places and you'll get the better end of the deal."  
"That doesn't sound right."  
"Who cares? Nobody in this place is about to be goody-two-shoes about it except for you. Everyone around here is willing to do anything to get his or her body back... but no one has succeeded yet."  
"BUT WHAT'S THE POINT OF ALL THIS?!" Cedric hollered, getting just as tired of this talk and no action as anyone would.  
"That's... for me to know and you to find out. You've got a mission, and I'll be danged if you don't start it soon as you catch sight of your mortal friends."  
"But-but-!"  
And Tom disapparated, leaving Cedric with a sick kind of feeling.  
"Immortality... better than heaven, but worse than hell," Cedric sighed, and looked down the long, dark, challenging hallway ahead.  
  
TO BE CONTINUED...  



	2. Default Chapter Title

THE RIDDLE GAME  
  
PART I - What You Don't Know Can't Hurt You... Maybe  
  
The darkness echoed off the hallway's walls, and Cedric had the vague idea that this may be a trick. But then he did remember the Avada Kedavra Curse being cast on him, and he shook off his suspicions. And he was already forgetting the memory rules and all that 'crap' as he dubbed it in his mind.  
  
"Just one foot in front of the other," Cedric squeaked to himself, and he started walking down the hall. Part of the way into the blackness, he carefully put his book into his left pocket and pulled his wand out of his right one. "Lumos!!"  
  
His wand's tip glowed suddenly, and made the hallway look even freakier to Cedric than it was.  
  
"Um... if anyone's there... uh... please don't pounce on me or anything!" Cedric squeezed out all of his courage and kept strolling down the tunnel. -This- He reminded himself, -is why I was not placed in Gryffindor.-  
  
And then the surprise hole came. Right under him.  
  
"YAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!" Cedric fell through the gap he hadn't seen in the ground, and landed on something he thought was very familiar. Actually, it was some ONE very familiar, so he hurriedly got off. "H-Harry? Sorry! So sorry, I just... um, hell-OOO..."  
  
But of course, Harry Potter couldn't see Cedric. He was looking right through Cedric's chest.  
  
-Mortals can't see memories- Cedric cursed to himself. He looked up. He couldn't see from where on EARTH he had fallen from... but then again, who said he had fallen from somewhere on earth?  
  
And then he saw the most blood-chilling thing that was possible at the moment. Voldemort. And Death-Eaters. And then he realized Harry was strapped to a gravestone. And that was his body -er- shell on the ground some distance away.  
  
-I have to be imagining things- Cedric frowned, and found himself looking down horrified at a snake that had just slithered between his legs. Before even considering passing out, he watched the snake as it continued its circling around the crowd. -Oh man; that's some whopper! Thank goodness it didn't, like, rip my stomach out!!-  
  
Cedric strolled out from the circle through which he estimated to be at least two Death-Eaters' empty spots that were right next to each other. He walked over to his body and leaned over to inspect it. Like Tom had said, it was very convincing. But... something was wrong with it. Something was missing.  
  
It was a very hidden mark, which you only really noticed if you knew it was there, but Cedric, the REAL Cedric, had a scar on his lower lip. It was a pale white line that went down to split the lip symmetrically, which he had gotten as a toddler when he'd fallen on his face. He'd often looked in the mirror and remembered that even as a little child he had been rather clumsy.  
  
The point is the shell didn't have that scar. Everything looked exactly normal, except for the scar...  
  
-Maybe somebody will notice that I have a scar and this thing doesn't! Maybe somebody will figure out all of this and want to know where I REALLY am!!- Cedric thought to himself excitedly, but then again, it was a very little scar that was missing from his features and a very big story behind his disappearance. Nobody was going to notice... but just maybe they would. But no... but yes! -ARRGH!!-  
  
Cedric watched the circle of Death-Eaters, Voldemort, the snake, and Harry for a while. (You can read details to find out what precisely happened to those people in the fourth book of HP, GoF). Just when Cedric was giving up hope of ever doing anything exciting in the memory form, besides watching several Cruciatus Curses (which he hated and squeezed his eyes shut and covered his ears whenever the curse was cast), watching a duel between Harry and Voldemort, he saw their wands connect. After several moments of gaping, Cedric watched as Voldemort's wand regurgitated a form... Cedric himself! But it was hollow looking, and echoed when it talked.  
  
While everyone was watching the wand spit out another person, Cedric studied the shadow of himself carefully that was inside the cage-thing. Turning slightly, the shadow looked at him. Cedric's heart nearly stopped beating as the face smiled in a way that reminded him of...  
  
"Tom!" Cedric shouted, as the face's features twisted into Tom's face and winked at him. They quickly snaked back to Cedric's looks, and the shadow-Cedric turned to speak to Harry once again.  
  
"Bring back my body to my parents," the shadow-Cedric said. Soon, as Harry's father's shadow-self told Harry to run, Cedric ran over to the Triwizard Trophy, and tried to pull it over to Harry. No matter how hard, long, or forcefully he tugged at it, it acted as though it were cemented into the ground. It wouldn't budge a centimeter, let alone an inch!  
  
Cedric looked up and saw Harry trying to drag his shell back to the cup.  
  
"Leave it!" Cedric yelled, but he knew Harry couldn't hear him. If only there was some way to get the trophy over to Harry. "Wait... the summoning charm, Harry! Use the summoning charm!"  
  
Cedric couldn't help screaming as a curse went right through his nose and blasted the statue behind him apart, even though it didn't hurt him a bit. He also couldn't help screaming at Harry to use the summoning charm and pointing to Harry's wand, even though Harry didn't see him or hear him.  
  
Right as Cedric was about to give Harry a nice hard kick in the butt, Harry did finally seem to have heard him, and used the summoning charm on the trophy, which Cedric managed to touch just as Harry did. A tug behind his navel told him he was going back to school... for now.  
  
-Whatever's awaiting me at Hogwarts, it better not be as frustrating as this little episode was!- Cedric thought grumpily as he traveled back to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry with Harry at his side...  
  
TO BE CONTINUED...  



	3. Default Chapter Title

THE RIDDLE GAME  
  
PART II - Suspicions Conceived  
~~~  
There was a swirl of color, and then...  
  
WHAM!!  
  
"Ugh..." Cedric had landed hard on his feet, and was slightly tipsy from the 'ride' to Hogwarts. Taking all of the surroundings in -crowds, Dumbledore, Cornelius Fudge... screaming girls?- Cedric fell to his knees in a huff, very dizzy and confused at everything. As he tried to regain his lost balance, he let go of the Triwizard Cup, and closed his eyes.  
  
Then he heard someone say his name.  
  
"It's Diggory!" Well, at least his last name. "Diggory's dead!"  
  
-What? Oh. Dang- Cedric slapped his forehead as his mind cleared slowly. That was right. No one could see him, the real Cedric, the memory, but they could see a very convincing duplicate of him lying spread-eagle dead.  
  
He stood up still very woozy, and looked over the heads of the crowd. He knew some of the people, like Fred and George Weasley, Angelina Johnson, Katie Bell, and Draco Malfoy. But then who was that striding towards Harry, who was now being leaned over by Professor Dumbledore? Oh, that was Mad-Eye Moody.  
  
"Let go, Harry. You can't help him now," Cedric heard Dumbledore try and pry Harry's hand off the body's wrist.  
  
"Him? You mean IT," Cedric said dully, looking at the shell, which was very lifeless. Something stirred in the back of Cedric's mind.   
  
The echo-shadow thing of himself had told Harry to bring back his body. But that echo-shadow thing was really Tom in disguise as Cedric. Why would Tom want Harry to return Cedric's body to his parents? It seemed all nice and good, but Cedric couldn't help wondering if Tom had another motive. Cedric himself wouldn't have asked as much, knowing it would slow down Harry if he needed to run away.  
  
And then Cedric's mind conceived the suspicion that Tom was not as helpful as he appeared at a first glance. Cedric had gotten a cold feeling from Tom from the first time they had met, and this only heightened his theory that Tom wasn't what you would call a friend.  
  
Still thinking, Cedric slithered through the few cracks in the tight crowd, and ended up a few people in front of his parents. His father was trying to push his way through to the source of the commotion, wide-eyed and expecting the worst. And he would get it if he believed that body was really Cedric.  
  
"Dad, that is not me!" Cedric said forcefully to his father, wiping his mind clear of suspicious thoughts about Tom. But as Amos Diggory caught sight of the body, he went very pale. Mrs. Diggory followed, and soon his parents found themselves in tears. "Mom, Dad, listen to me! ME!"  
  
But, his parents couldn't hear him.  
  
After numerous attempts at shaking the shoulders of his father, he tried his mum, but to no avail. "Guys! Please! Listen! Hear me! See me! NOTICE ME!!" Cedric found himself screaming in his father's face, right before his dad dropped down to the shell, hugging it. Cedric couldn't help feeling panic. He was gone from the mortal world now, to be sure. Not even his parents believed him alive. He saw Cho sobbing nearby, and restrained the urge to throw a fit.  
  
Through blurry eyes, Cedric glanced toward Professor Dumbledore talking to Professors McGonagall and Snape. Harry was gone, now, and so was Mad-Eye. Cedric figured Moody must have taken Harry to the hospital wing.  
  
He watched mildly interested as Dumbledore walked through the crowd of people, towards the castle. Snape and McGonagall were only feet behind him. Cedric wanted to follow, but he wanted to stay with his mom and dad. But they couldn't hear him or see him. So he followed Dumbledore, McGonagall and Snape.  
  
Soon they were walking down the halls of the school, and Cedric's first Surprise happened when they passed the hospital wing's corridor.  
  
"Um, guys?" Cedric blinked to make sure he was seeing right. They were heading still down the hall, past offices and classrooms. "The hospital wing's back there... oh, never mind."  
  
Halfway down the hall, Cedric was slightly amused at a minor detail. Snape and McGonagall were shoulder to shoulder with each other, even if barely. That was closer than they usually were. -Must be scared- Cedric thought though he couldn't understand why.  
  
"Hey you, boy!" Cedric stopped dead, and watched as the teachers turned the corner. "Yeah, you! The one with the brown hair and prefect badge!"  
  
"Uh..." Cedric turned around. There, facing him, was a girl of about 15. Her appearance was unruffled; hair as white as chalk, and eyes an icy blue. Her nose turned up a little, and her mouth curled into an easy-going smile.  
  
"Pretty-boy Diggory. Never thought I'd meet you in person," the girl laughed harshly, and Cedric had the impression that she didn't like him too much. "I think I can take you!"  
  
"Take me where? A duel? I'm not so sure I... well, I'm not really..."  
  
"Chickening out. At this rate, you'll never get back to your mommy and daddy, girlfriend, or other people you care about," the white haired girl folded her arms cruelly over her Hogwarts robes.  
  
"You know my name, but I don't know yours. What is it?"  
  
"The name's Brandi."  
  
"How'd you get here?"  
  
"I was a student. I went home for the summer, and Voldemort came over for a picnic."  
  
"Uh... I, um, sorry..."  
  
"Nah... well, this is where I was 'working' at the time. And the time was 15 years ago."  
  
"What?! But aren't you-?"  
  
"Memories never grow up. We never mature in appearance, though we can still learn things as well as anyone else our 'age'. Our appearance's age, that is."  
  
"Oh... that's right, we're immortal."  
  
Suddenly a crash sounded somewhere in a close by hallway. Cedric and Brandi poked their heads around the corner. At the very end of the corridor, Snape and McGonagall were facing the space of an empty door. Dumbledore must have burst into that room.  
  
"But, isn't that Professor Moody's office?"  
  
"When I was here, it was Professor Struttlebug's hole. But, yeah, I suppose it is Mad-Eye's office."  
  
Cedric ran down the hall, followed by Brandi. She seemed to glide behind him rather than run or walk.  
  
They watched as Snape and McGonagall entered, and the capture of the imposter Moody happened. (Read 4th HP book yet again for details). Cedric gaped while the whole thing took place.  
  
"Happens all the time," Brandi assured him. "Just like duels. Come on. Fight me!"  
  
"I can't!"  
  
"You HAVE TO!"  
  
"No! It doesn't seem right..."  
  
"You prefects are all the same. You think everyone and everything is beneath you."  
  
"That's not true. I just don't want to fight, okay?"  
  
"Chicken boy."  
  
Cedric ignored her and started walking down the hall, following Dumbledore who was leading Harry Potter to the hospital wing. Brandi tailed him.  
  
"Why are you so scared?" Brandi was now beside him, glaring at his stubborn profile.  
  
"If you don't have something good to say, don't say anything at all."  
  
"You know, you're cute when you're angry."  
  
"GO AWAY!"  
  
"I don't want to."  
  
"Okay. I'll duel," Cedric pulled out his wand, and brandished it threateningly. "I'll commit suicide if it gets rid of YOU."  
  
"You wouldn't," Brandi pulled out her own wand and waved it. It looked about ten and one half inches, and was a very pretty color. "Cherry wood and dragon heartstrings. Top that."  
  
Cedric frowned. "I don't want to. I just want to top you!"  
  
"First we bow..." Brandi hissed as she bowed to Cedric. Cedric followed her in the action, but kept his head up to face her. He wasn't sure she was someone he could trust entirely.  
  
"And now we fight," Cedric raised his wand and Brandi smiled evilly. "Expelliarmus!"  
  
Brandi dodged this curse with ease. She pointed her wand at Cedric's pocket. "Accio Diary!"  
  
Cedric barely caught his diary in mid air, when it tried to fly out.  
  
"I'm not too tough for you, am I?" Brandi laughed at him as he put his diary back into his pocket and backed away slightly. "Chicken boy!"  
  
Cedric didn't answer this. He was taught that if someone slapped you on one cheek, you were to turn and let him or her slap you on the other. -Temper...- Cedric's wand hand shook slightly. "Petrificus Totalus!"  
  
Bursts of energy shot out of his wand and wrapped around Brandi before she could react. She was now seizing up like a toy soldier, arms sticking to her sides and legs together. As she was falling forward, Cedric ran to her and caught her before her face smacked the floor.  
  
"Who's a chicken boy?" Cedric said as he laid her down on the floor on her back. "I assume I've won."  
  
As Brandi's mouth was jammed shut, she couldn't answer. She closed her eyes, being the only parts of her body she could move.  
  
There was a flash of light, and Brandi was standing up again.  
  
"But I thought..." Cedric started, wondering how she could have recovered.  
  
"You won," Brandi said, scowling at him. "And you earn two health points, because I've won previous battles. For every health thingy you earn, a tally mark is added to the inside of your diary cover. No one's sure how many you're supposed to get to restore yourself to mortality, but two health points are barely anything. There's a way longer road to your trip, and you better start hobbling down it."  
  
Cedric watched as Brandi glided down the hall and out of sight around a corner. After she was gone, he pulled out his diary and checked the inside cover. Yep. Two bright red tally marks burned brilliantly on the top left-hand corner.  
  
"And I'm one step closer to being human again," Cedric popped the book back into his pocket and smiled bitterly.  
  
TO BE CONTINUED...  



	4. Default Chapter Title

THE RIDDLE GAME  
  
PART III - Keeping Connected  
~~~  
Brandi was right. Two little steps up the mortality tower were nothing. So he had one victory - so what? He'd won a Quidditch match on his first go and was smothered by the rest of his Quidditch challenges.  
  
-What if I get erased from even this world?- Cedric gulped, hours after he had defeated Brandi. -Or worse: what if my diary gets destroyed?-  
  
  
In the days that followed Cedric watched his old friends with a painful heartbeat. He'd try to do anything to make them notice him now. The only hope was for someone to find his diary - his OTHER diary. Someone HAD to discover it! The book that was connected to the diary he carried around in his pocket was the only hope he had of ever talking to mortals.  
  
He could barely even talk to other memories. Brandi had gone off somewhere, and there was only one other memory he had met in the school: James. James was pretty nice most of the time. James was handsome. James was too old to be Cedric's friend, really.  
  
Okay, so James wasn't too old, say. He was only twenty-one, but still the gap between Cedric's age and his age did make a difference. Cedric would want to talk to him, but James seemed to only want to search for one other memory. Cedric knew that memory was James' wife, but he didn't want to say anything. Losing his crush, Cho Chang, was bad enough - but to lose a wife? -Devastating- was the word that Cedric thought fit.  
  
One day Cedric was getting used to the fact that he would probably be a memory forever. He was touring the library, searching for his diary's match, maybe somehow to make it more noticeable. James happened to be around the corner of a bookshelf, writing in his own diary.  
  
"Uh, hi," Cedric said rather uneasily as he noticed the black-haired man. James looked up at him and frowned.  
  
"What are you doing here?"  
  
"Looking for my diary's write-mate thing..."  
  
"And what good will come about because of this?"  
  
"Uh..."  
  
"Look, it doesn't make a difference if you find it or not. All that matters is if someone else finds it and actually decides to write in it. You can't help any mortal see it. They have to get it for themselves. And even if they do write in it, and they happened to be your enemy..."  
  
"Oh," Cedric backed up. He could see James was a tad snippy that day, and maybe it wouldn't be the best to try and make friends yet. "Well, I'll see you..."  
  
Cedric scuttled out of the library as fast as he could while looking casual, then remembered no one could see him anyway, so he just plain broke out in a run.  
  
"Why does all this have to happen to me?" Cedric spoke to himself just for a sense of company, and was trying not to look at the glass half empty when he bumped into a statue. "D-o-o-o-h! Ugh... dumb piece of-!"  
  
"HEY CHO!"  
  
Cedric looked around wildly for the voice, forgetting all about his smooshed nose.  
  
"What is it, Terry?"  
  
"Ron Weasley's just been to tell me that Harry Potter's out of the hospital wing!"  
  
"That's nice... but why tell me this?"  
  
Cedric saw two people stroll around the corner. Terry Boot and Cho Chang were walking side by side talking to one another. His heart gave a leap and a hope blossomed that maybe Cho would find his other diary-thing. But then his balloon of hope popped and he remembered Tom saying it would appear where you could barely even notice it.  
  
"Well, I just thought you might like to know... well... not really. I mean... uh... hmm... I forget."  
  
"Come back when you remember," Cho said wearily as Terry shrugged and walked away. "Honestly; some people."   
  
"Cho, come on, PLEEEEAAAAASSSEEEE hear me!!" Cedric groaned inwardly as she waltzed into the hospital wing, just brushing his right arm.  
  
"Hey, Citrus!" James had exited the library and was looking at Cedric. Cedric gave him an unbelieving zombie like look.  
  
"The name is CED-RIC."  
  
"Yeah, okay, Seaweed, I was wondering-?"  
  
"CEDRIC!"  
  
"Yeah, whatever. Okay, so. Well... I've got a mortal pen-pal."  
  
"Yeah, so?"  
  
"I was wondering if you know him? His name's Seamus Finnigan."  
  
"Um... I think he's a Gryffindor... sixth year? ... No. Fifth, fourth year? He wasn't in any of my classes, so he couldn't be a sixth-"  
  
"Does he know my son?"  
  
"Gee, um, I don't know. Maybe? Why don't you ask him? ... Wait, SON? You have a kid? What's your last name?"  
  
"Uh... never mind. Forget I asked!"  
  
"Hey! You DO look a lot like-!"  
  
But James had turned away and was walking swiftly towards, well, somewhere else. Cedric folded his arms. It was times like that that made him frustrated.  
  
  
A few hours later, around the students' lunchtime, Cedric strolled out into the Hogwarts grounds outside of the school.  
  
-Nothing like fresh air... except maybe being able to really BREATHE IT!- Cedric was pouting now, openly, for anyone to see even if they couldn't really 'see' him. "What am I gonna do NOW, Tom?! HUH?! TELL ME, WOULD YA?!!"  
  
"My, my. I'd thought a Hufflepuff prefect of all people would be able to endure," that voice! Cedric whipped around to stare into Tom's sharp eyes.  
  
"Tom! Oh, man, for a minute I was suspecting you were ... well, where the deer and the antelopes play," Cedric sighed. Home... what a wonderful thought. Too wonderful. But it was so torturing!!  
  
"No, I'm always there for those memories who need me. I'd really like for each and everyone to become mortal again... but sometimes that just doesn't work out," Tom raised his eyebrows, looking up and down at Cedric. "I have a feeling you just might make it, but..." Tom raised his wand out of nowhere and Cedric's diary flew into his hand.  
  
"Hey, um, be careful with that, alright??"  
  
"Only two tally marks. How sad."  
  
Tom had opened the small book and was looking at the inside cover.  
  
"Well I've only been in one duel so far," Cedric fidgeted, watching Tom twirl the quill around between his long fingers.  
  
"But there were plenty of other chances you could have taken to duel," Tom's foxy smile was back, and he closed Cedric's diary.  
  
"Like what?"  
  
"James... ever considered dueling with him?"  
  
"Well, he's just not... well, I don't know! I can't! I hate dueling! It always ends up with someone losing and a huge guilt trip if you win..."  
  
"That's the way life is, Cedric. But then again you don't have a life."  
  
Cedric's throat tightened. He didn't know if he should, but... "Then YOU duel me."  
  
"What? Oh. No."  
  
"But you said yourself that's the way life-!"  
  
"The point is, I'm much to experienced to battle you or even to CONSIDER fighting you."  
  
"And why is that?" Cedric could feel himself puffing up. It was something all prefects were used to, and it was a circumstance - at this point - that all prefects would take the chance to puff up at.  
  
"Don't get pompous with me!" Cedric felt as if a very sharp needle had popped the huge puffing balloon inside him.  
  
"Well, there has to be some other way to become human again! I mean other than dueling or draining life..."  
  
"Well..."  
  
"WELL?"  
  
"There might be..." Tom was now turning Cedric's diary over and over in his hands.  
  
"Please tell me! I'll do anything to ... uh, well, almost anything ... to get back my human life!" Cedric was becoming paranoid, watching as Tom played with his precious book.  
  
"Remember when I said your body was stored somewhere very safe?" Tom stopped flipping the book.  
  
"Yeah?" Cedric, for the first time, paid no attention to his diary and looked into Tom's eyes.  
  
"You'd have to find it. Get back into it. But first, before that, you have to get through what makes it so safe."  
  
"Security?"  
  
"LOTS of security."  
  
"Dang."  
  
"Well, you're the one who wanted to know..."  
  
"And where do I find this safe secure place where my body is?"  
  
"Oh, like I'm telling! You have to find it if you ever want to be mortal again. Mummy and daddy are waiting," Tom tossed Cedric's diary back, which Cedric just barely caught, and apparated away.  
  
"Fat lot of help that was..."  
  
"Hey, pretty-boy!" Brandi had stepped out from behind a tree.  
  
Cedric growled. This had not been a good day.  
  
"You been spying?" Cedric found that nothing would be surprising with Brandi.  
  
"No... But I couldn't help but overhearing about that other way to become mortal."  
  
"And I couldn't help but wonder if you COULD help it."  
  
"And you're going to help me."  
  
"Do what?"  
  
"Become mortal."  
  
Cedric snorted indignantly. Right, like HE wanted to help HER. But, of course, she might not be so bad...  
  
"Come on, pretty-boy."  
  
Then again, she might be.  
  
"Why should I?" Cedric tucked his diary back into his pocket, and realized this was becoming some sort of regular routine when Brandi laughed.  
  
"Because you wouldn't only be helping me! I could help you..."  
  
"How?"  
  
"You ask too many questions."  
  
"And you appear too many times."  
  
"Shut up and get with it! I'm not being totally selfish, you know. I figured you were a novice at this memory deal, and I'm willing to help you."  
  
"I'll bet in the middle of the walk to ... um, well, wherever our bodies lie, you'll stab me in the back and get my tally marks!"  
  
"Stab you with what?"  
  
"I dunno... your wand?"  
  
Brandi laughed harshly, and Cedric had a wandering temptation to shove a sock in her mouth.  
  
"See, I prove my point! You NEED help."  
  
"Not as much as you need therapy."  
  
Brandi stuck out her hand, offering to shake with Cedric.  
  
"Partners?"  
  
"Um..."  
  
"Oh, come on!"  
  
"Is this the 'Oh, come on' that you used when you wanted to duel me? If so, start reconsidering..."  
  
"Cedric!"  
  
"Fine," and so, Cedric took Brandi's hand and shook it. And then he started wondering if he had just made a mistake.  
  
  
TO BE CONTINUED...  



End file.
